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Language and STEM education at school – policy and research

#LangInEd

Chair: Ms Jansie Niehaus, NSTF

Track A: ECD & Primary school

• Jade Jacobson, Nal’ibali

• Ingrid Sapire, Wits

• Wendy Chauke, UL

Changing how the Story Ends:

The Role of Early Reading in South

Africa

Sparking children's potential through storytelling and reading

Jade Jacobsohn, Managing Directorjade@nalibali.org

Sparking children’s potential through

storytelling and reading.

• 31 million bilingual story supplements

• 7 million listeners / week• 13 854 people trained• 47 150 children at reading clubs

(non-cumulative)• 719 627 children on WRAD

Multilingualism in Foundation

Phase mathematics

Research funding provided by the

FirstRand Empowerment Foundation is gratefully acknowledged

Ingrid Sapire

Marang Centre for Mathematics and Science Education, Wits School of Education

3 October 2017

Project

Researching multilingualism in FP maths

A two year research project with five research tasks. Aligned with the five project

tasks, the study will investigate the following broad questions:

1. What is the current situation in primary schools with regard to HL and LoLT?

2. What inconsistencies in mathematical register (focus on isiZulu, Setswana and

English) in the area of ‘patterns’ are identifiable in FP teacher and learner support

material?

3. What variation can be seen in the use of language related to ‘patterns’ (isiZulu,

Setswana, English) among district officials, teachers and learners in Gauteng?

4. What model (monolingual/bilingual/multilingual) of language use is perceived by

teachers and learners to be dominant in FP mathematics classes and what do they

think are the effects of this language practice?

5. In the multilingual South African context, what strategies, techniques and resources

do FP mathematics teachers use to inform their mathematical conversations in the

classroom, and how do they use these?

Take home points

How can the system better provide for the varied needs of learners in terms of language – LoLT?

Recognise the variation present.

Promote strategies (code switching/translanguaging) that could enable more effective learning.

How can the system better provide for the varied needs of learners in terms of language – LTSM?

Investigate the affordances of multi (bi) lingual materials.

Provision of materials which enable best learning opportunities.

The ‘standardisation’ debate needs to be actively addressed.

What teacher support is needed in the current context to address their needs and their ability to provide optimal learning opportunities for all learners?

ACQUIRING NEW LANGUAGES

Mrs Wendy Shihlamariso Chauke

Xitsonga for Education Lecturer

University of Limpopo

Emperor Palace 03-04 OCTOBER 2017

4. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

• There are some basic theories advanced to describe how language is learnt and taught. These are:

1. The behaviourist theory

2. Mentalists theory

3. Cognitive theory

4. Interactionism theory

• Behaviourist and Mentalist theories are mainly applicable to the acquisition of native languages.

• Cognitive and Interactionism theories account for foreign language acquisition.

8. FACTORS AFFECTING LANGUAGE LEARNING

• Motivation: an individual’s preparedness and desire.• Attitude: an individual's beliefs and opinion. (an attitudinal

foundation that sustains the motivation).• Personality: There is no strong evidence of a consistent

relationship, but at least two researchers suggested that personality variables could influence attitude and motivational characteristics

• Climate of the classroom e.g. realistic expectations for each individual learner, mutual respect, a democratic atmosphere with co-operation rather than competition, experience of success and freedom both of choice and from anxiety.

• Teacher factor: Quality of conversation• Time: some children may have insufficient time to understand

a learning task.• Opportunity for learning• Age: No age restriction